Friday, December 11, 2009

Small knitted Malabrigo accessory to the rescue & a gimmicky gimmick!

I have basically broken every self-imposed knitting rule in sight these days and am in a sort of WIP free fall, which is not where I wanted to be several weeks before Christmas. Luckily holiday knitting 09 was D.O.A. before it could really take hold. This is a relief. Let's take a look at our list of infractions...

- Knitting more than two projects at once? Pshaw!

-Casting on for numerous large sweater when other large sweaters are laying fallow? Maybe.

-Having to buy more size 7 needles/stitch markers because all your other ones are in use? I'm not saying that didn't happen. Yikes.

-Melting cheese on everything in sight? Wait, different type of infraction. But still, not good.

Luckily such moments can be be rescued by everyone's favorite knockaround pal, the small knitted Malabrigo accessory. One of my very best Besties M made a gentle request for a hat for her son, E, who is basically the cutest kid in America. Apparently he likes to wear the hat I made for her, and so she was thinking that maybe if it wouldn't be too much trouble I could perhaps make one for him, too...is she kidding? DONE.

The SpecsPattern: IAD Dulles hat, which in my mind is a. a very under-appreciated pattern and b. heretofore renamed the IUD hat.Size: Children's smallNeedles: Size 7 16 inch. See I wasn't kidding about the needle problem.Yarn: Malabrigo Worsted in 'Bobby Blue', a little less than half a skein

Please note that this hat is actually supposed to be hippy/slouchy, but it looks like more of a skull cap on our sullen, ornery 12 year old model. I fear my days are numbered as a mother with willing knitwear models. Waa.

I just love this hat, and let's be honest: the yarn is a dream. Malabrigo is made for the small accessory, is it not? And the color, the color...

Bobby Blue might be my favorite of all the Malabrigo colors, which is funny, because I normally don't even like blue that much. While Vaa is the closest color to a mood ring I've ever seen in yarn, Frank Ochre is both flat-out weird and fantastic all at once, and Sealing Wax is quite possibly the most luscious shade of red on the books, for me, Bobby Blue is number one with a bullet.

This leads me to the gimmicky portion of today's post. I love to give away yarn to people that love yarn, and since recent detashing efforts have been unpleasant, shady and soured me on the cheap-assness of many folks, leave a little comment here if you wish & tell me which Malabrigo color makes your heart skip a beat. I'll choose a random pal to receive a skein of my favorite color, Bobby Blue. We'll shut the fun down on Tuesday at midnight. So tell me, which is your favorite shade of Malabrigo?

94 comments:

I agree, bobby blue is brilliant. But butter? Oh. my. god. It has the look of buttery popcorn. I don't like yellow, but butter? ::insert drooling noise here:: It was one of the first malabrigo colors I purchased, and I just wish I had a bathtub full of it. Food always tastes better when butter is involved, and I feel like the butter colorway reflects this!

I could probably write a paper about my love of butter (I won't divulge if I am talking about the food item or the colorway here)

I really like Vaa, but it might have more to do with the name than the color, though sometimes there is this incredible marriage of color and name. (For example, the elusive Vincent's Apron in Colinette Jitterbug. I must have that yellow, and it is made even more wonderful by the name. Who is Vincent? Why is he wearing an apron? I must know.)

P.S. I think it is Vincent Van Gogh - he used a lot of ochre shades in pictures like the Sunflowers, those ones of the harvest and that one with a pipe on a chair. I imagine his apron was covered in ochre splodges.

Out of the Malabrigo I own, it's probably a tie between Lettuce and Impressionist Sky. Green is my favorite color and the Lettuce is just so vibrant, but the subtle color variation in Impressionist Sky is gorgeous. There was a beautiful dark red I saw at my LYS a few weeks ago, but my current unemployment forced me to put it down and walk away, so I don't know the colorway.

Cute hat. I can still get my 15 year old sister to model for me, but only barely.

I hate grey, passionately, it's not a colour, it's a bad mood. But I bought some Pearl to make a hat for a much more conservative than I am niece, and I'm loving it right now. The subtle colour changes and silverness are sucking me in.

That hat looks terrific. My daughter also looks sullen in a lot of the project shots I took for my ravelry page. Sigh.

Well anyway, I love Malabrigo and just bought a skein of the twist to make some Dashing fingerless gloves for my husband. Unfortunately, although the pattern calls for aran weight yarn, it also calls for a gauge of 5 stitches per inch, and the Twist knits up at 4. Personally I don't think that 5 is to be had from aran. ...Getting on to the subject at hand, the yarn I bought is Azul Profundo, and it's my favorite colorway. Thanks for the contest.

Wow, it's like asking a kid in a candy store to judge which is the best sweet! Tuareg is a drool-worthy teal. But Pearl Ten (worsted) is amazing - like a soft baby rabbit with greys & soft browns all mixed together! And sock - OMG! I wouldn't even know where to start!

Like PaisleyApron, I have never actually owned or knit with Malabrigo. Isn't that sad? I'm afraid it might ruin me for all other yarns forever... but I'm willing to take that chance. There's something sooo cozy about gray wool, so today I'd pick Paris Night. On a gloomy day I might go with Vermilion thought.

I think your model is just entering her sullen stage. C'mon, real models aren't allowed to smile or look in any way pleased to be wearing what they are!

I must confess that I'm still enough of a Malabrigo newbie that I don't know if I really have a favorite color. Of what I've used, though, I do love that deep green I used for a couple of hats last year -- I think it's Verdes or something like that. Clearly I need to knit with more Malabrigo!

i really like bobby blue. but i have to say my favorite is shocking pink. i can't wear it--far to shocking for a redhead--but my blond sister gets to luxurate in it, since i get joy just from holding the color.

IMHO Lettuce is the all-time #1 Malabrigo color. But that Bobby Blue is awfully sweet! Have you tried Indigo? It's kind of a nice denimy periwinkle. Also makes my heart go atwitter. Have a great weekend.

So hard to choose just one (so I won't): Tortuga, because it's neutral grey with subtle hints of smoky purple, Velvet Grapes, because it's wine with bits of lavender, and London Sky (silky merino) because it's a perfect periwinkle-lilac. Not that I like purple or anything....

You like purple and don't realize it? I "like" green and buy all things green without thinking and before you know it, I've got tons of knit green items. Therefore, my fave Malabrigo color is Sapphire Green. It's so lush and reminds me of grass in spring...

Anywho--the Bobby Blue is a wonderful shade of blue and if only I get so lucky as to knit something with it.

Wow, I'm sorry about whatever it was that happened with your destash attempt. As for the malabrigo, I see Bertha and I share the same color (tuareg!), which is no big surprise! The name weirded me out first - why oh why should a color of yarn be named after Saharan nomads? It turns out that they wear veils and other garments of particular shade of indigo. It's gorgeous yarn and I learned something from it, too. :)

I think my answer would vary depending on my day and color mood. But I just knit a koolhaas in Emerald...what's funny is that I wasn't really enamored with the color on the skein but in hat form on my head, I'm swooning. So today, that's my favorite.

I've been thinking about a destash...sorry to here yours was a bit disappointing (any advice?). My favourite Malabrigo has to be Olive followed by Sealing Wax and Velvet Grapes. Love the hat! The boy won't model for me either...

You want me to pick just one?? Well ... I think I have to go with Frank Ochre. It's just such a fabulously WRONG color in some ways, and I love love love it for accessories - a chartreuse scarf brightens up any winter outfit!

Love the Dulles hat! Yours and the pattern both. It's true it's underappreciated. I was there when it was designed and I had the original. :-) You make me think this might be a good gift for someone....

Because I am very concrete and easily suggestible, my favorite is usually the one I touched most recently, right now I am finishing a cowl in Pearl Ten for my sister. Wish I could rationalize not giving it to her. LOVE. (I have never seen Vaa, Paris Night, Velvet Grape or Sealing Wax in person but have web gazed upon them enviously.)

I got some black and bergomata malabrigo as a door prize and just loved the orange. Then I bought a brown lace weight. I then added some red, green, violet and blue worsted to the orange and black. I plan to do a fair isle messenger bag with all the worsted. As for color, I love them all!

i am also in crazy christmas knitting mode... perhaps that trip to Hawaii wasn't such a good idea?? knitting and 80 degree weather... didn't happen. but if i have to stay up at 2am to finish weaving in ends - so be it. MaiTais.

No need to enter me into the drawing, but I couldn't resist giving my input on fave Mal colors. I first fell in love with Brown Berries and I still think that color is pretty yum. But I'd have to say probably my all time fave is Polar Morn. Such a perfect subtly shaded grey.

Polar Ice. Polar Moon? Polar Bear? I think it was Polar Ice, a silvery blue that calls my name every time I see the little left over ball underneath the scads of left over sock yarn in the drawer.

Sealing Wax has beckoned to me in online pictures, but I've been afraid to be disappointed in person- like the time I blew a ton of cash on a Chanel lipstick that was touted as the perfect red. I looked like I overdosed on an Orange Julius. Attractive.

Polar Morn, Paris Night, and Taube. Too many to narrow down to just one favorite. Depends on my mood.Love your blog so much, since I also have serious startitis and attention issues. And, I live in the western part of PA.Have a great holiday season!

I think you know what my favorite is. Yes, it's Frank Ochre, which I have been hoarding & stockpiling for some time. Love the Bobby Blue. In my head, I say "Bobby Blue" like Willem Dafoe says "Bobby Peru" in Wild at Heart.

Obvs, I am late for the contest, but that's OK, as I am amassing a frankly scandalous stash of Malabrigo. (NB: All your beautiful FOs in this luscious yarn have NOTHING to do with that. Nope. Nothing.)

I love Vaa to pieces. Sauterne is the only yellow I've seen that makes me sorry I can't wear yellow. But I'll throw in a mention for Solis, which is awesomely blue-green.